<![CDATA[This study aimed to examine how kindergarten educators in Banten, Indonesia, reconstruct, adapt, and sustain local games as culturally responsive learning resources amid changing play patterns, digital media exposure, and the increasing use of standardized educational materials. An exploratory qualitative design informed by the Gioia methodology was conducted across five kindergartens involving 10 informants, comprising eight classroom teachers and two school principals. Data were collected through in-depth interviews, classroom observations, and document analysis and were analyzed iteratively through first-order concepts, second-order themes, and aggregate dimensions, supported by triangulation across data sources. The findings identified three interrelated mechanisms of local-game revitalization. First, teachers reconstructed local games as culturally meaningful learning experiences connected to children’s familiar social environments. Second, they pedagogically adapted the games by simplifying rules, modifying materials, and aligning play activities with curricular objectives while retaining essential cultural values. Third, the sustainability of these practices depended on their integration into broader school-family-community relationships and on continuous adaptation to social and digital change. These findings indicate that revitalizing local games involves not merely cultural preservation but also pedagogical translation, contextual adaptation, and institutional embedding. The study extends play-based learning scholarship by highlighting teacher agency and cultural context as key mechanisms for sustaining local games in early childhood education. Its qualitative and geographically bounded design limits broader generalization; therefore, future studies should examine these mechanisms across more diverse cultural and institutional settings.]]>
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